Draco's Hidden Secret
by Sabrina the Teen Witch
Summary: Draco has been chosen to carry out a special task, in his sixth year at hogwarts, and although he is a death eater he is not the killing type. Luckily however, he finds an unlikely friend who he can relate to who helps him with what must be done.
1. Unexpected Acquaintance

Chapter 1

It was Ginny's fifth year at Hogwarts and it was a lovely day. They had only been at school for two weeks but Ginny new that this year was going to be another great year at Hogwarts, maybe even her best year yet. She was on her way out to Herbology when she walked past the girl's lavatory on the first floor.

She had tried to avoid this bathroom at any cost because of the incident with Tom Riddle in her first year. Today however she was in such a good mood that she completely forgot that this was the hallway it was in. Although she loathed the bathroom because of all the memories it brought back, she decided she would go in and freshen up a bit. She walked in and saw the horrible entrance to the chamber but thought, "_I have to get over it"_ and walked in. As soon as she walked through the doorway something swooped down in front of her. It was moaning Myrtle.

"Hello Myrtle" said Ginny very pleasantly.

"GO AWAY!" shouted Myrtle and leaned her transparent face uncomfortably close to Ginny's.

"What's wrong?" asked Ginny confused and taken aback.

"Nothing that concerns you now go away!" replied Myrtle with a snooty attitude

Ginny, now curious what Myrtle was so desperate to hide, walked through her transparent form and into the bathroom. The sight she saw amazed her beyond belief. She had expected to see products from Zonko's or from her brother's shop, which were not permitted in the castle. The sight that met her eyes however, was nothing of the sort. Instead she saw a boy sitting at the far end of the bathroom with his head in his hands…crying? The sight was even odder as she got closer. The boy had slid his hands further down his head so that it was resting in a slightly different position and his hair was now showing. The platinum blond hair hung so that the boys face was still covered but Ginny now recognized who the boy was… Draco!

Ginny, now completely baffled at the fact that something could bring Draco Malfoy to tears and make him seek refuge in the girls lavatory, decided the best thing to do was get out before Draco realized she was their so she turned abruptly on her heel and quickly tiptoed out of the bathroom. She speed walked down the hallway and out of the castle hoping that Draco wasn't behind her and the moment she stepped outside the castle she sprinted as quickly as she could across the lawn to Herbology.

During Herbology today they were going to be graded on making Tarle weed change colors. They were supposed to be mixing up the proper foods for their weeds that would make them change to purple, blue, red and orange. Each different color determined what antidote the plant was best used for.

Everyone had been practicing for about ten minutes and most students had turned their plants to a slight blue or purple tint when Professor Sprout came over to Ginny and stood beside her. Ginny, now realizing that she had done nothing for the past ten minutes but stare off into space thinking about what she had just witnessed, quickly she picked up some ingredients that were in front of her and pretended to mix them together.

"Wonderful!" said Professor Sprout to Ginny "ten points for Gryffindor!"

Ginny perplexed, looked up at her plant and saw that it was a brilliant sky blue. Confused she looked around and saw that Luna Lovegood was standing to the right of her. Ginny hadn't even noticed her presence due to the state of shock she was in.

"What happened?" asked Luna in her usual dream like state. "You look like you saw Filch waltzing with Mrs. Norris, although I wouldn't put it past him."

Ginny contemplating whether or not to tell Luna what she had just witnessed decided not to and replied, "Wow you hit the nail on the head!"


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

That night at the great hall, Ginny sat with Ron, Hermione and Harry. She was replaying the incident in the bathroom over and over again in her head. Draco had ridiculed Ginny many times and she loathed the mere thought of him. Especially after some of the cruel things he had done. Yet she still felt bad for him thinking about him crying in the girl's bathroom. She began to wonder again what could possibly make Draco Malfoy cry when her thoughts were interrupted…

"Ginny are you ok? You look like you've seen a ghost! I mean, oohh you know," said Hermione. Ginny had been thinking whether or not she would tell them all, and came to one conclusion. She decided she would only tell what she saw if she went into the bathroom again and saw him in there. As for now she was going to keep her mouth shut.

"Hellooooo, earth to Ginny Weasley" said Ron teasingly.

"Oh" said Ginny snapping back to reality "Uummm nothing! I was just thinking about our Herbology lesson today, we changed a Tarle weed's color" unsure if this would convince them Ginny hesitated and then shoved a fork full of mashed potatoes into her mouth. Ron looked at her curiously and then shrugged it off. Meanwhile Hermione started to talk about how she had found that lesson quite useful and started to run off what each color was best used for. Ginny's lie had worked and they continued their meal as if nothing had happened.

Ginny continued to eat as her thoughts turned back to the incident. She wished she could find out what had been so bad to make Draco cry, when she realized she could ask someone. She got up quickly and ran out of the great hall leaving the others both confused and worried. She ran to the girl's bathroom again and stormed inside. The person she wanted to talk to was sitting on the top of a stall and humming.

"Myrtle I have to know why was that boy in here earlier, and what happened to him?" asked Ginny trying to appear caring. When what she really wanted to say was, "_tell me what made Draco cry so badly so I can get him back the next time he makes fun of me." _

Myrtle looked at her bewildered and flew off of the top of her stall and down face-to-face right in front of Ginny.

"If your so concerned, ask him because its not my place to tell" replied Myrtle with false sincerity in her voice.

Ginny, not knowing what else to say, turned and walked out of the bathroom.

Ginny despised Draco, and yet couldn't figure out why she was so interested in finding out what had been bothering him so. She assumed she was so fixated with the encounter because she could have never imagined that Draco was capable of crying, he just seemed too…, well there were a lot of things that told her that Draco wasn't capable of feelings, but the main one was that she had just never seen his face without that disgusting smirk on it.


	3. The Room of Requirements

Chapter 3

She had been trying to think of possible reasons for Draco to be crying in the girl's lavatory, while she was falling asleep that night and only came up with one possible scenario. Maybe he had found out he was muggle born, she thought recalling how much he teased Hermione about it, and with that last thought she fell asleep.

She was now on her way to the room of requirements. It was Saturday and she had been missing the D.A. meetings that they use to have last year, so she figured she should go and practice by herself. She had thought about inviting Luna, but had decided not to because she hadn't practiced some of her spells in a while and didn't want to accidentally hit Luna with a leg locking curse!

She had finally gotten to the hallway in which the room of requirements was situated, and spotted the tapestry that hung across from it. She began to think of the type of room she needed in her mind. _A place to practice spells, a place to practice spells…_ she thought while walking back and forth in front of where the door should be. She walked back and forth two more times and a door seemed to materialize right where she had remembered it. She pulled it open and walked in. It was nothing like the way it was when she was in the D.A. Back then it was about the size of the Gryffindor common room and was emptied of all but a few pillows, bookcases and a table. However as she walked into the room now, it was entirely different. The main differences were that the room was much darker, with a lot more stuff in it. Also it looked like someone had been there recently because there were papers and books scattered all over the floor. Ginny decided it would be a good idea to clean up the mess a bit before she started practicing, so she bent down to pick up a book that was lying at her feet. She flipped the book over in her hands and read the title on the cover _The Insides to The Unforgivable Spells. _Ginny wondering who could possibly be reading such a book suddenly heard footsteps from behind, what appeared to be, an armoire in the far corner of the room. Ginny not knowing what else to do turned around and ran out of the room as quickly as possible and not even paying attention to where she was going knocked, into an unfamiliar first year who was right outside the door. Ginny apologized hastily and continued running until she got to the end of the hall and turned the corner. It was then that she realized she was still grasping the book she had picked up off the floor. She went to open it to see if she could figure out to whom the book belonged to when she heard footsteps running up from the hall she had just come from. She tucked the book under her arm as quickly as possible and ran to the stairs that lay before her, slid down the banister and jumbled herself in with a bunch of first year girls that were talking at the foot of the stairs on their way to the great hall. She wanted to stop and look up to see who had been in the room of requirements but felt it would be too obvious if she did so. Instead she followed the group of first years to the great hall where she found Harry, Hermione and Ron all sitting and eating lunch. She sat down beside them and wondered whether she should show them the book she had found, which was still tucked under her arm.

"Are you ok Ginny? You look like you just ran the entire Quidditch field" said Harry in a concerned voice.

"No I'm fine," replied Ginny. "I was just practicing for Quidditch" she said stealing Harry's idea. She thought for another moment whether or not to tell them about the book and decided they might be able to help figure out whose it was so she laid it out on the table in front of her. Hermione looked at the book for a second and gasped. Ron now looked up and realized that Ginny had joined them. He hadn't noticed because he was playing Wizards chess and eating, he now looked at the tattered book too and let food fall out of his mouth as he stared at the title of the book.

"Where did you get that?" asked Hermione in complete shock as Harry turned to look at the book for the first time. He had also been distracted due to the fact that Ron's knight had just obliterated his queen.

"I found it…" Ginny trailed off not knowing if she was willing to tell them that she went in the room of requirements to practice. Just like they used to when they were in the D.A.

"Yes…?" asked Ron who was now so interested to know why his little sister had a book about the unforgivable curses that he didn't even realize that Harry had just ordered his bishop to kill Ron's queen.

"I found it in the room of requirements" said Ginny not being able to think of another place this book would go unnoticed.

"What were you doing in there?" asked Ron with an eyebrow-raised curiously while waiting for a good explanation.

"Well…" began Ginny when she was cut off by the familiar voice of Neville Longbottom and turned around quickly to see how close he was.

"Hello!" said Neville "can I sit down?" Ginny turned back to the table and went to try and hide the book from Neville as quickly as possible, knowing what happened to Neville's parents, but the book was not in front of her anymore. She looked around wildly and saw Harry flash her a quick wink. She then realized that Harry had quickly stashed it under the table when she turned around. Hermione invited him to sit down and Neville squeezed in next to her. They all gave Neville fake smiles as if nothing had happened but he was to busy looking at what ever was left of the Wizards chess that Harry and Ron had abandoned, to notice anything was wrong.

They all finished lunch while Harry and Ron finished their game of chess and Neville watched. Then Neville left, saying he was going to get a book from Professor Sprout about some sort of man-eating plant and they all said they would catch up with him later. They watched as he left the great hall and as soon as he disappeared through the Giant doorway on the far end of the great hall Harry took out the book he had stashed under the table.

"So what were you doing in the room of requirements?" said Ron picking up right were they had left off. Ginny was glad when Neville interrupted the question before but she had still not thought of an answer so she told them the truth.

"I went to practice spells from the D.A. that I was a bit rusty at but when I got there and thought of a place to practice spells, it didn't look anything like it had when we were there last year."

"Well it picks its appearance based on your needs sooooo… maybe it got confused and thought you wanted a place to practice dark arts rather then defense against the dark arts." Said Ron trying to sound convincing but doing a very bad job of it.

"I don't think so," said Hermione "the room of requirements is a very powerful thing. I don't think it would mess up like that."

"Well how else do you explain it?" Ron asked trying to see if he might have actually had a good idea and Hermione just didn't want to admit that he might be right.

"I don't know but if it has knowledge about how to do unforgivable curses I think we should tell Professor Dumbledore."

"NO!" screamed Harry Ron and Ginny all at once.

"Fine but when someone gets hit with an unforgivable curse don't come running to me" and with that Hermione collected her books and stormed out of the great hall.

"Well I'm going to go to I have a 3 roles of parchment to write for potions and I figure I should get it done today rather then wait till tomorrow so I'll be taking that book back."

Harry shoved the book across the table to Ginny and she picked it up and went to leave but Harry grabbed her by the wrist.

"Er… I don't think it's a great idea carrying that around for everyone to see maybe you should put it in your book bag?"

"Ohh right" replied Ginny who hadn't even thought that someone might see it and think she was a raving loon.

"Ohh and Ginny make sure you put it back in the room of requirements when your done trying to figure out who it belongs to" said Ron collecting his broken chess pieces and repairing them one by one for another game.

"I didn't say I was going to figure out who it belongs to," said Ginny now curious whose the book was and wondering if it had belonged to the person who chased her out of the room of requirements and down the hallway.

"Well I would want to know who was looking to kill people," said Ron lazily setting up his game pieces for another game.

"Right well if I have enough time after my potions paper I'll think about it" and with that Ginny put the book in her book bag and left Harry and Ron to start yet another game of Wizards Chess.


	4. note

Chapter 4

Several weeks went on and Ginny tried not to think of Draco or the book she had found in the room of requirements. It was odd, now every time Ginny saw Draco in the Hallway or at a meal. She began to find that he seemed, in a way, more tolerable even when he was walking around like a pigheaded prat he seemed less pigheaded.

One afternoon a couple weeks later Ginny spotted the tattered book she had stashed under her bed. She had gone in her room quickly to grab her broom and tripped on a corner of it that was sticking out from under her bed. She had tried to put the book out of her mind but she longed to know who the owner of the book was. So she picked it up and sat down on her bed. She began to flip through the pages. If ever there was a time to judge a book by its cover this was it. Not only was the cover tattered and eerie looking but the inside had the same disturbing feel to it. Ginny decided that she wasn't going to find anything new about the book by looking at it. She had looked at it several times the night she had found it and the only thing it brought her was trouble sleeping, so she placed it down on her bed and stood up. However, as she did it slid off the bed and fell on to the floor with a low thud. Rolling her eyes Ginny bent down to pick up the book. It had fallen open on the floor to a page entitled _Channeling Your Rage to Ensure Pain. _Ginny picked up the book and began to close it when she realized there was a note scribbled upside down at the bottom of the page. Ginny flipped the book over and read it.

We're in!

Why do we need a peace

of hair from 2 first years?

Crabbe

Crabbe had spelled piece wrong but Ginny got the gist of it. She looked at the note for a few more seconds when she heard someone open the door. She quickly slammed the book shut and shoved it back under her bed. Ginny turned around to see that Hermione had just walked in.

"I thought you were going to practice Quidditch with Ron," said Hermione a bit confused.

"I am" replied Ginny very quickly. She then walked across the room got her broom and quickly headed back towards the door. Then she began to wonder whether or not to tell Hermione about the note she had just read. Ginny stood there thinking for a minute "_if I tell her will she tell me to go tell Dumbledore?" _Going against her better judgment, Ginny put down her broom, got down on her hands and knees and pulled the book back out from under her bed. She then scanned the books pages looking for the note. She found it towards the middle of the book and showed it to Hermione.

"Holy Crickets! You have to tell Dumbledore!" said Hermione after reading what was scribbled on the page. _Wow! _ Thought Ginny _I should really go with my gut instinct! _

"I bet you anything he was writing to Malfoy," said Hermione. Ginny thought about this for a second and came to the conclusion that Hermione was probably right. Ginny was going to make a big fuss out if it. Then decided not to because it might be suspicious. Instead Ginny picked up her broom and said "your probably right" and with that she left. She walked down the stairs and through the portrait, out of the Gryffindor common room. She new she had promised she would meet Ron to practice a bit. She also new she was late but she still had to take a detour before she met up with him. Ginny walked through the castle until she got to the tapestry. It was then that she spotted the first year girl again in the hallway. Her mind snapped back to the note she had just seen in the book and immediately she had an idea of what was going on. Ginny ran up to the first year girl and then looked at the wand gripped tightly in her hand. The mahogany 18" wand with a horntail dragon carved into the handle definitely didn't fit a curly red haired first year that was barley four feet tall. The first year looked back at Ginny with a glare not fit for a first year, or a girl for that matter. Ginny turned to face the wall and thought of the room she had thought of before. Once again the door appeared before her and she walked inside.


End file.
